DARPA Subterranean Challenge

January 2020. I received an E-mail from a professor at the University of Reno in Nevada. He was part of a multi-institutional team taking part in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. The challenge took place in the MEGA Cavern near Louisville KY. The competition involved using both virtual and physical robots to navigate and map the underground cave system. Points were given for successfully finding and reporting the location of “artifacts” placed along different parts of the course.

Team “CERBERUS” consisted of the University of Nevada, Reno, ETH Zurich, NTNU, University of California Berkeley, Oxford Robotics Institute, Flyability and the Sierra Nevada Corporation. I was asked to participate by supplying a Super Megabot Robot (SMB) which acted as a support vehicle for the main robot, a four-legged machine, called “Anymal” developed by ETH Zurich.

The Super Megabot was used to transport some of the equipment needed for Anymal as it navigated the very challenging environment. There was no existing communication inside the tunnel complex and so all communication had to be developed by the team in the GPS denied environment.

Caves and mines are the perfect environment to utilize robots. They often have uneven floors, obstacles to avoid, toxic or explosive gasses, falling hazards, little or no illumination and of course, the risk of a roof collapse. Our team not only completed the challenge but, with a score of 23 points, won the Systems Challenge (Physical Robots) and was awarded the two-million-dollar prize!

The challenge was more than just a competition: Not only did it require intricate teamwork, but it also helped advance the technology required for applications such as search and rescue in caves, mines, subways and collapsed structures–for example. It introduced unique mapping technology and navigation solutions in realistic, hazardous and complex environments in an underground setting.

Links:

https://www.subt-cerberus.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb7xMlHfe9g